American values

This week in sociology, we learned about the top 13 American values. We read an article called, "The Values Americans Live By," and it explained how Americans didn't have a set list of basic values that  would apply to every American since Americans believed everyone to be unique. Although, as Americans, we believe our norms and values to be natural, other cultures would think that general American values were strange and undesirable. Ideal culture is when Americans make values they like to think they live by, and real culture is when Americans have values they actually live by. For example, on Thanksgiving, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by feasting with their families and being grateful for what they have. When Americans think about thanksgiving, they see themselves as fortunate and grateful; however, at midnight, thousands of Americans are found fighting over the "best deals" at shopping centers. After spending a day of being grateful for what they already had, they went out to buy more of what they didn't need. Although Americans like to think they are grateful for what they have, in reality, they are only thinking about what they can get next.